Man Socks

The Man Socks from the leftover grey yarn are now complete. Kirby got bored posing with them, so here's what you get. I still have four balls of dark grey left and no idea what to do with them, but the new rule is only one olde yarne project at a time, so I'll worry about that another day.

Old Friends, New Rules

We are moving on here Chez Nous to exciting new knitting projects, because the lame, boring ones are finished.

Here are some Man Mittens fashioned from leftover yarn. No they are not the same size. Custom-fit mittens for custom-designed Man hands.



Here is the purple cardigan. Plain stockinette stitch, saddle shoulders, and a plain garter stitch neckband. No buttons. Nice and heavy and warm. Of course, now that it's done, it's 70 degrees outside. It figures.

Beagle blanket. Some of that white stuff is lint from the dog beds, where the wubbie (as we now call it) has been enjoyed for two nights now. Some of that white stuff is the mattress peeking through lace.

I have only one project active now. Grey Man socks from leftover yarn. There is satisfaction to be obtained from using up leftovers. I get to feel frugal, and I get to free up space otherwise occupied by leftover yarn. The thing is, I have plenty of beautiful new yarn in the stash. Old yarn is boring, and I've been focused too much on it. New rule: only one leftover yarn project at a time. Because I am working the Grey Man Socks, that means my next project is a new yarn project.

No problem. Remember this? The October sock club sock. I have wound the yarn and read the lengthy advice about gauge and sizing (which has me quite confused about what I should do). I also have the December sock club sock and the January sock club sock to do. I am compulsive enough to have a need to work them in order. FIFO and all that. But, one of my knitting circle buddies is new to the sock club and is working the January sock. I am competitive enough to want to finish mine before she finishes hers. (Don't change what you're doing, Mel. This is my issue, not yours.)

This poses quite a dilemma for the Bunny. I am trying to be more flexible and less neurotic. Working October first means succumbing to the compulsive FIFO-ness side of me. Working January first means succumbing to the Memememememe! side of me. Both are neurotic. Perhaps the thing to do here is neither: start the December sock first. Of course, making a conscious decision after attaching so much importance and meaning to the various choices is in itself neurotic. I can't win.

By the way, when my December sock arrived, The Man mistook it for a Christmas present he ordered for me. Yup, it's yarn, I must have ordered this for her. He wrapped it and put it under the tree for me. It never occurred to him to actually look at it and notice that it wasn't the yarn he ordered, it wasn't from the yarn company he ordered from, and it had all sorts of sock club instructions and documentation accompanying it. Yarn is yarn. Muggle.

Ridiculous green hat

Yup, there it is, remastered for a humanoid head. I love this goofy hat. The Man wants me to make one for him. I might have enough yarn for another one.

Fair Isle Sock

When we last visited the Fair Isle socks, Bunny had used 25 grams of dark grey yarn in the first sock and had 25 grams of dark grey yarn left. We return now to the part where Bunny has finished the pattern and needs to knit the toe.


Will



she

make

it?

Doh!

That's Okay. I am not that compulsive. I can do this. I'm good enough, I'm smart enough, and gosh darn it people like me!

Deep breath. In. Out. So they won't match exactly. So what? We have egomaniacal dipshits running for President and one of them is going to win, young Americans getting shot at in Iraq where thousands upon thousands of civilians are dead, the homeless are freezing in the streets, some child is being horribly abused right at this moment, and I'm going to care about a pair of socks not matching exactly? (hmm. I got some perspective there, but I can't exactly say I feel better either.)

Look at my handsome monkey enjoying the sunshine! Look at the nearly perfect bad-ass socks I made!

The good part of the purple cardigan is done, that is, the knitting part. All of the pieces parts are being blocked:




The sucky part remains, that is, the finishing part. Possibly I could finish in a couple of days, or maybe I'll shove it in a bag and never finish it. I'm pretty sure I'm not going to do a whole bunch of buttons. Maybe I'll do one closure at the neck. That leaves open options for the edging down the front. Maybe I'll pick something interesting out of one of my Nicky Epstein books.

The twinkle toes socks are finished. They are not the most difficult ones I've done or the most impressive, but I think they're my favorite so far, but that just might be because they're pink.

My compulsive brain is already starting to think of new projects. I've got two sock club socks to do, and lots of good stuff in the stash, and The Man needs more mittens.

More about the socks

So I'm at knitting circle on Tuesday working on leftover grey yarn sock #2. I am asked whether I have enough of the light grey left to finish the second sock because the ball I was working from was awfully small. The answer is I don't know. But I am so smooth and cavalier about it. If I run out, I will just use more of the dark grey. They won't match perfectly, but The Man won't mind so who cares? Certainly not Bunny. Bunny is a roll-with-it type of knitter.

Are you fooled? As soon as Bunny got home, she tore through the stash looking for more of the light grey yarn. Non-matching socks! An abomination! That cannot happen!



There is one more ball of light grey yarn left. I have enough. Crisis averted. Whew. I still freak out a little just thinking about it. God knows what's going to happen if I run out of dark grey to finish the fair isle socks. Great. Now I'm freaking out again. One drama at a time, Bunny. One drama at a time.

The twinkle toes are going swimmingly. They photograph oddly because the lace contracts when it isn't being worn. They are lovely. They are a toe-up sock starting with a figure-8 cast-on. Sock #1 was the first time I ever did a figure-8 cast-on, and it went perfectly. Sock #2, however, took me five attempts before I ended up with something I could live with. I love the pink.

Socktastic

Slowly, the leftover grey yarn gets used up. This a Man sock, knit on size 2 dpn.




All of my color work socks have been accomplished with self-patterning yarn. My mom wears her various Bunny-made socks and strikes up conversations thusly: My daughter made these! The yarn made that pattern! For example, tiger socks with Opal Rainforest tiger stripe self-patterning yarn, which I still have lots of and will make again eventually. But now, Bunny is doing her own color work. Behold:



That, dear readers is one bad-ass fair isle sock. I can hardly contain myself. It is not for The Man, and boy is he jealous.

Problem. I used up 25 grams of the dark color and have exactly 25 grams left for the second sock. Will she make it? Or will there be a weird little light colored stripe at the end of the toe?